The managing director of a leading hospital contract cleaning company has called on the Health Service Executive (HSE) to significantly change the way it manages hospital cleaning.
Colin Maybin, managing director of Maybin Support Services, which is contracted to clean a number of hospitals in the State, was responding to this week's Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report, which found serious deficiencies in hygiene standards in hospitals throughout the State.
Echoing the report's finding that the HSE's corporate management was poor in this area, Mr Maybin said the HSE needed to specify, in detail, the cleaning tasks it required from a contract company. He called for the inclusion of service level agreements in tender documentation and the imposition of financial penalties if these detailed agreements were not adhered to.
"This will ensure that sufficient labour input hours are accurately costed which in turn will enable standards to be met", he said.
Maybin Support Services holds the cleaning contracts for St James's Hospital; Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin; and St Vincent's Private Hospital in Dublin. It is also about to commence cleaning work at the South Infirmary hospital in Cork.
Mr Maybin said the traditional emphasis on using part-time cleaning staff needed to change. Reliance on part-time cleaners led to a high turnover of staff, whereas dedicated full-time staff were more likely to provide a professional service, he said.
Mr Maybin added that, if the HSE wanted to improve hygiene levels in hospitals, it must also address the lack of dedicated storage space for cleaning equipment and the absence of changing facilities for cleaning staff. "Is it right that cleaners travel to work in the same clothes they work in?" he asked.
The HIQA report found that several hospitals in the State did not have adequate arrangements to supervise the work of contract cleaners. One of the report's key recommendations was that "hospitals must establish robust arrangements for implementing, monitoring and managing external contracts for hygiene-related services".
Responding to HIQA's findings, Dr Kevin Kelleher of the HSE's healthcare associated infection governance group said: "The HSE has recently put in place a significant amount of strategic, structural and governance initiatives."